the brick

Ok, so I have received this via e-mail in the past (which makes me think the same may be true for many of you) but I got it again recently and like it...a lot.

Coming from someone who generally gets EXTREMELY agitated in the madness that is Atlanta traffic, this is definitely a good thing to think about.  Here's my paraphrased version of the story...(the forwarded e-mail is quite long, but you'll get the idea)...

A successful business man who drives a super nice car was driving FAST through a neighborhood where children were playing.  As he passed, a brick slammed into the side of his car.  Angered by this, the guy backs up to where the brick was thrown, and gets out of the car, where he finds a child.  

He yells at the kid and asks why he threw the brick, and points out that his car is very expensive and the repairs will also be costly.  The child begins to cry, and tells the man that that was the only way he could get someone's attention, and explains that his brother was in a wheelchair and had fallen off a curb.  The brother had been injured.  The boy was unable to help his brother get back into the chair by himself, and was just trying to get some help.  The boy is now sobbing.  

The man now (rightfully so) feels like a total jerk, swallows hard, and goes over to lift the fallen boy back into his wheelchair.  He wipes the boy's cuts and scrapes, double checks to make sure that no injuries are serious, and then watches as the boy pushes his brother back down the street.  The driver then leaves the scene.

The driver never repaired the very noticeable damage on his new car door: he kept the message to remind him of a very important lesson learned that day...

[here comes the take-away...are you ready!?]

...Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

I know that on some days, a whole palate of bricks might be required to pull me out of whatever zone I'm in, and on those days, I need to be reminded of things like this.

*stop and smell the roses, or whatever other scents are surrounding you in your life. good or bad.  sometimes, it is NOT about me.*

good stuff.

mind over matter

Now, since I know all of you live and breathe by my blog {wink, wink}, you remember that I wrote a post in January in which I listed a few of my New Year's resolutions.  I am happy to report that after successfully surviving and enjoying five and a half months of 2009 (WHERE DOES TIME GO?!) I am keeping to my goals quite nicely...for the FIRST time in my life.  [SIDE NOTE:  Please be aware that I a) rarely even set New Year's resolutions, and b) never keep the ones I actually set, so we're talking about a small miracle here. ...Resolutions of the past would be "This year, I'm going to journal every day," and then at the end of the year, the only entry in the journal would be January 1st...you get the point].  Anyway...

Ok, now let's be real for a minute...

...I am an over-weight human being.  I know...you had NO idea ;o).  

In an effort to reduce my overweight-ness and increase my overall health, I have taken up running.  Now, I thought running would be just a method of exercise that would help me achieve better physical health, but in the mean time I have discovered that running (and intense exercise in general) is much more than that!

Maybe all of the amazing marathon runners / great athletes of the world already knew this and I'm just a late bloomer, but I have been totally amazing by how much of the running game is mental and not physical.

For me, while running, I have to have a constant conversation going with myself...

..."i can't make it up this hill. i should walk..."

..."RUN. c'mon. suck it up. you can do it..."

[And then after deciding that voice #2 is correct, I am partially up the hill when the next conversation begins...].

..."ok, i already made it more than i thought i could have...maybe i 

should walk the rest of the way up..."

..."c'mon, look, you're halfway there already, and getting closer 

every step.  just take one step at a time..."

Note that this is an extremely paraphrased version of my mental conversations with myself, but you get the point ;o).

[And then, MUCH to my surprise and excitement, I have made it to the top of the hill...Then the conversation goes...]

..."YOU DID IT...even though you didn't think you could..."

And I generally have an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and excitement and surprise.  And then I feel stronger.  And I realize that running, like most things in life, is a mind-over-matter type deal.  Sure, part of the battle is physical, but I am finding that most of the time, when I "can't" do something, the only reason I didn't keep going was because I gave up mentally...not because my muscles, lungs, and heart couldn't keep going.

So yes, I'm getting physically stronger from running, but I think the mental strength that I am discovering is the surprising part and perhaps the most rewarding.  I can talk  myself into a lot more things these days (compared to when I first started), and it's always fun to try to out-do myself.

Another thing I think about while I'm running is that running is the ultimate metaphor for life...

*Sometimes it is best to focus on the step-by-step / right here, right now, but others it is the best to gaze off into the distance towards the goal...depends on the day.

 

*There are uphills, downhills, and plateaus, and for one reason or another, each are good for their own reasons...also depends on the day and the route you take.

*Sometimes it's a sprint, and sometimes it's a marathon.

*Sometimes I want to listen to music and be distracted.  Other times, I want to hear my feet hit the ground, hear my breathing, and hear the sounds around me. 

*Above all else, the important thing that I am learning is to keep the conversation going so that I continue to push myself to achieve things that I never thought possible.

It really is [mind over matter].